Review on 1/2 HP Single Phase Oscillating Spindle Sander By Shop Fox W1831 by Anurak Grubb

If you do not already have an oscillating spindle sander, this will quickly become one of your favorite tools. It chews through wood in a hurry when shaping something, but you have a surprising amount of control and can do relatively detailed work with it as well. If you already have one, then I would say this is a great value for the price. You "can" bog it down if you really lean into it, but don't do that. On a 1 3/4 inch poplar board (hard wood, much harder than pine which is what most 2x4's are made of), 1 foot long and 1 foot wide, you should be able to take 1/2 inch off of a side (with the grain) in about 5 minutes, no problem, without straining the machine. Any faster and you may start to bog the motor. The nice machined work surface means you will get nice 90 degree angles. Of course, you can hold your work piece at an angle if needed (just hang on tight).I have been using it for making guitar bodies, and I love it. Things that used to take me more than an hour can now be done in under 5 minutes. By switching spindles and/or grains you can go from a "rasp" for removing large amounts of wood to a "nail file" to get a nice smooth finish that may not even need any hand-sanding if you are careful.One thing to check as soon as you take it out of the box is to make sure the motor spins up and works smoothly. The first one I got had some issues with the motor (intermittent starting and stopping). It still gets 5 stars because Ebay shipped me another one immediately and sent out UPS to pick up the bad one, all within 2 days, making me completely whole and satisfied. The replacement works like a charm and has already seen many hours of use with no issues.At this price, this is a great bargain. Others have complained about the spindle travel being too short. I am not sure why they think that, but it works perfectly for me. If the "bottom" of the sleeve gets gummed up, you can flip it over, and use an abrasive cleaning stick to clean it when both ends are gummed (which I highly recommend, search for them on Ebay as well).